Little Match Girl
by goddessa39
Summary: Hinata. In the memory of Demon Boy. (A rantish, confusing, somewhat stream-of-consciousness) [like this] about a post-kidnapped Hinata [Little Match Girl] and her memory of [sky] blue eyes. All this blip dedicated to emptysummer. [How awesome is she.]


This fic is for **_emptysummer_**. Not only is she awesome, but she has similar taste in fiction and asked for something along these lines of a NaruHina piece after reading my awesome work titled _Demon Boy_. However, since I couldn't find myself writing a version of that bit for Hyuuga Hinata, I changed the prompt a little. You know all of those unfinished fanfiction pieces out there where Naruto was driven feral for whatever reason? This is one of those. Only, I'm not posting it until I've written the whole damn thing.

Not that this has been on my PC and thumb drive for... a long time. Almost as long ago as _Demon Boy _came out. I decided to post this blip since I don't see it become much more.

Prompt: Hinata/Naruto. In the memory of _Demon Boy_.

XOXOXOXOXO

Title:It was originally going to be "In The Seasons Of Fire" for whatever plot I had imagined to give it, but since its just a blip, I will call it... Hm. Dunno. How about **Little Match Girl**.

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. But if I did, I might borrow Anko-of-Dango-fame, Hinata, Naruto, and Iruka-sensei.

Canon: Naruto of the Elemental Nations

Timeline not overly applicable. It isn't canon but it also is, sorta. Well, at least you'll recognize the universe, hopefully.

Pairing: NaruHina with possible mentions of Anko/Iruka.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

/I let it fall, my heart

And as it fell, you rose to claim it

It was dark and I was over

Until you kissed my lips and you saved me/

-Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain"

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Later, the little girl doesn't know why she doesn't tell them. Maybe it's because she [_wants to keep him for herself_] cannot speak herself out of the shock that holds her still. Or maybe not. There is blood staining her pink sleeping gown [_it is not pink any longer and it never will be_] and the potato sack she was held down in. The liquid coagulating everywhere is black in the night; if she didn't know any better, it could be a street puddle she had fallen into. But the feeling of it stains her skin and the memory that haunts her has not settled.

"What happened, daughter?" Hiashi asks harshly. [He's panting but that doesn't mean he cares.]

"What happened Miss Hyuga?" and old man with a large hat asks kindly. [It's amusing that she can tell he wears a mask but is still kinder than her own father.]

She holds herself still, shaking in her shock. [_Quiet is the mouse_.] She says nothing. [Quiet _on the outside_.] There are no tears yet, but they will come later. When she is alone _[not that anyone cared for her-not since Mama died_].

A nurse comes into the room, her white hat unstained but the woman's hands [_killer's hands_] are covered in gloves. They undress her slowly, softly. The garment sticks to her skin like sloppy mud and it occurs to her that only her knees are bloodied with her own life and bits of dirt and gravel. The nurse is silent as is the rest of the room as she sits on the side of the hospital bed. The woman softly [_like a mother_] wipes a damp cloth over her knees, picking out debris that should not be there. Hinata thinks that it hurts a little, the way her legs jerk occasionally. But really, she can't feel it.

Blood in her veins [_like drums_] is pounding in her ears and there is a far off sound as if a pitch whistle never stops [_or a copper coin on the tongue hits a bit of electricity_] takes up most of her attention. The old man and the mean man [_two monsters that are sometimes the good guys sometimes_] question her again but she can say nothing [_yet see more_].

"What did he say?"

"How do you escape?"

"How did he die?"

These are just some of the questions she is asked but does not answer. They are figments, [_floating like clouds or steam of a nightmare_] and though her mouth is still she catalogs them for later [_like daydreaming_] so she will know everything of what happened and wont [_lose it all to them_] forget.

The nurse tries to dress her naked body, but she's clutching her damp and dirty gown all over again, staining more of her skin. It smells disgusting but [_Shhh little bird, hold still_] that's alright. She doesn't care. Not yet. Eventually, when she still says nothing [_can't see beyond the mask_], the men turn towards one another and converse. Her eyes slip closed and Hinata does not even realize she's slipped into a light and unpleasant slumber on the hospital gurney. It's cold and she shivers when a man gently shakes her. [_Wasn't sleepingdreamingdead_.] She looks up [_into the skynighteyes_] and sees grey orbs flickering like lightbulbs.

[...In her mind, there is a tunnel. It is dark on all sides where slimy brick keeps hold [

don't look back_] and a light far ahead stretches on. The man cannot see what it is but he begins to tread the way. There are doors, occasionally, potholes and ladders that go to other places but he knows better than to go behind locked doors on a child. Yamanaka Soiri tries to question the girl. "What is your name?" brings the smell of clouds [_feels like rain_] and sunrise, the daylight awakening everything else. "How old are you?" just brings the memories forward of birth and a woman and closeted rooms of chained wolves with wounds on their heads. "What happened last night?" The tunnel rocks and Yamanaka Soiri jolts as the ground beneath him wavers. He gets an image of strings [_holding her down_] and a stranger in black picking her up [_or saving her?] _and placing her in a bag [_like she ever mattered_] and the feeling of gravity taking hold. Her breath stretches and that jumps when they hit the ground. A gag around her mouth keeps her quiet [_what was the point?] _and cuffs hold her hands and feet tied together. And then-...]_

Soiri-kun jumps out of her mind before he is clouded into her unreality and cannot get free. He gives the Hyuga proof of a legitimate kidnapping and the Hokage has his proof of Cloud's underhandedness. The Hokage leaves to other business. Hiashi leaves with an order to a servant [_the branch house is not considered much else_] to return Hinata to the mansion when she is physically recovered [_he cares naught about her mind]._

Three days later a little girl wakes. Her fingers clench against her night dress [_pink is for the future of blood but this one is green for earth_] that lasts unstained. Her eyes shoot open, the lavender hue of the accessed Byakugan shining forth towards her window where the sun rises. She remembered movement [_stretching_], pain [f_allingfallingfalling_], and now she's free [_to look into eyes where the sky should be_.]

Hinata doesn't remember the boy's name, though he's been around town and at the Academy. She knows he's disliked by many [_cold eyes and hatred_] but her own clan looks down on her [_blank eyes and apathy, pity] _so that's nothing new.

The sky opens in a rainbow over the village and for just a moment [_or an hour in eternity_] Hinata sees the future, and knows hope. Hinata never mentions what happened when the emissary from Cloud attempted to kidnap her and got only his own blood spilled on the ground before the shower from the sky washed it away. She wants to find out who HINATA [_the girl and not the clan_] is and she will need [_blue-eyed quietsneakythere_] His help to find out.

The clan does not forget, thinks her weak for [_sleepinghatingbeing_] getting kidnapped in her sleep. It matters nothing that she was only five years old. It matter little that she was the clan head's daughter save that it is a greater afront. The council whispers future ideas [cage _her, keep her, lower her to her status, cagebirdseal] _that she pretends not to hear.

She raises her little sister more than anything. Hanabi is cute and smiles at her, something all Hyuga [_chained or unchained_] lose when the status of the clan is sewn into them [_thread three ladies spin like maiden spiders of what iswilleverbe_]. A nanny comes by often to pretend to work but knows [_doesn't understand_] that she is needed only a little. The branch of the Hyuga name [_lesser, Hiashi scowls, the Clan Council sniggers_] takes her in but does not love her. They teach her what she needs to know [_as if even they relish the day she will become one of them_] like cooking and cleaning. She knows what [_responsibility_] she has to do.

One day, Hinata knows that Hanabi will forget how to smile [_andlaughlovefeelhappy_] but for now the clan heiress raises the little girl as if the world were near perfection.

Hiashi beats her [_and calls it training_] and Hinata is healed, sometimes. Her eyes see more than they should. There is no hidden blind spot [_nosuchthingtheysay_] and a man uses the caged bird seal on Cousin Neji. Now he will hate her [_as all he hates_] instead of love her.

Shy little Light Girl dreams of [_flying_] wings and the sky opening up all around her. There are blue [_eyesthatwatch and eyesthatseeher_] and he promises him that one day she will find him [_of blue eyes and broken cuffs] _and then promises herself the same thing _[like broken chains_].

XOXOXO

One day she sees him [but not with her eyes] hiding in the brush and watching as children scuttle in nervous lines to the building of learning.

But he is just as lost [should he not be perfect?] as she [_little bird falling_] is and the world makes little sense. Hinata [_Hyuuga or Uzumaki or ninja or-] _become determined to [_catch him_] help him like he [_saved_] caught her.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

END.


End file.
